Saturday September 22, 2018 | 12pm kick-off. English Park, Christchurch

Loaded WaiBOP head south on Saturday to take on the might of serial league winners, Canterbury United Pride, in round 2 of the 2018 National Women's League.

The team will be looking to bounce back from Saturday's opening result against Auckland. Loaded WaiBOP played well at times, but were undone by the 2017 champions' clinical finishing during the second half.

"I was pleased with a lot of our performance against Auckland, particularly during the first half and for a majority of the second," said Head Coach, Michael Mayne. "But at the end of the day Auckland were too strong and they took their goals well.

"In general, I was reasonably pleased with aspects of our game, especially setting up initially in that first half to deal with some of their key threats."

Mayne will be looking for improvements heading into the game against Canterbury. "Each player has worked hard this week to analyse their own performance and how they can be more effective for the team," explained Mayne. "With that and looking through footage we've been able to see where Canterbury are quite strong but at the same time we want to just focus on ourselves and getting an improved performance for the weekend is the key for us.

It's a tough run for Loaded WaiBOP in the opening weeks of the campaign, coming up against 2017's top three, but that will provide an excellent marker of the levels the side needs to reach if they're to be contenders this season.

Click here for NWL results and standings. 

Photo: PhotoSport.